Carpe Noctem: Extraction
by Benji The Vampire Confuser
Summary: The saga continues as a mysterious new black ops team enters the game.
1. Default Chapter

**Carpe Noctem: Extraction**

**Part of the Omniverse Project**

**By Benji The Vampire Confuser**

_Based on Characters and situations created by Joss Whedon, J.J. Abrams, White Wolf Games, Marvel Comics, JK Rowling and Mike Mignola._

_Author's Note: This story takes place during the 4th season of Alias, between episodes 4 and 5. I said in the disclaimer for Interrogation that it took place between episodes 3 and 4. Obviously this cannot be as Weiss had not yet joined APO at that point. Oopsie. This crossover just keeps expanding, now Hellboy and a few mutants have gotten involved. As well as concepts from the Harry Potter books and Werewolf: The Apocalypse._

**Chapter 1**

Jack was lying on the sofa in the rec room when Bepa arrived that morning, one leg off the side, and his right arm slung over face, shading his eyes. For a moment she just looked on, amused. Finally she kicked his legs off the couch, waking him.

"Fuck off Malfoy." He muttered, then actually woke up. "Eh?" He looked up at her grinning face. "Oh it's you."

She flopped down into the space now vacated by his feet. "You always this cranky in the morning?"

"If you'd let me stay the entire night you might have found out." He growled.

She sighed. "I hoped you of all people would've been okay with this."

"Don't get me wrong love," he said in that Aussie/Cajun/Brit accent that at once amused and attracted her. "I've nothing wrong with one night stands. I just think both partners should know that's what it is. Besides it was freezing out there. You could have at least let me get dressed first."

She nodded in understanding. "All right, sorry about that. Both things. Didn't mean to lead you on or nothing. Just that, once I get bouncy with a guy, there's not a lot left I need to know about him."

"Ah. So I should have played hard to get then."

"Pssh, please. No such thing with guys."

At that moment, the door opened and a young man entered. He held his motorcycle helmet under his arm and was brushing his fingers through his white hair to smooth it. Right from the first moment she'd met him, when her mother's partner had `introduced` her to him, she'd thought he was quite sexy.

"Ms Derevko allow me to introduce our resident linguist and scholar. Vincente Natchios." Sark had said. He'd had this mysterious smirk on his face when he'd said that, but her mom told her that was just Sark's way.

Vincente for his part had not spoken to her, or even looked at her. But she still thought about trying to get through that wall.

Vincente, true to form, didn't look at her, or speak to her, though he mumbled a hello to Jack.

Bepa took hold of one of the braids in Jack's long black hair, the one with deer vertebrae in it, and pulled slightly.

"Ow, not in public darling."

"What is up with him?" she whispered, as the white haired introvert sat down at a computer.

"What Vin? No idea love. Just really shy I guess." Then he caught the way she was looking at the boy. "Please there's no way."

Bepa looked at him incredulously. "Excuse me?"

"I get to know a girl quite a bit from one toss as well chere. And you haven't the patience to get someone that shy."

"I've gotten shy boys before." She stated confidently.

"That shy?"

"Well no." But she kept looking, her gaze burning a hole into their team-mate's back. "But I like a challenge."

"Really now. In that case, care for a little wager?"

BAMF!

A burst of blue-black smoke and the smell of sulfur signaled the arrival of Kurt, their youngest operative. "Prepare to be served." he crowed, snatching up a game controller, his three fingered hands serving as no handicap. Vincente grinned and with a thickly greek accented "We'll see," abandoned his research to take his blue furred challenger on.

Watching this, Bepa leaned in close to Jack. "Is he gay?"

"Absolutely not. You go to a school like mine and you pick up on the signs. Boy's definitely batting for the Heteros."

"Then you're on. Name your stakes."

"Another go."

"What? All you gotta do is ask nice."

"Ah, but this time, you've gotta let me be on top."

"…"

"Like I said, I learned a few things from our brief time together." Then he looked closely at her. "Unless that's a problem." He offered, noting a troubled look in her eyes. "Did something hap-"

"You're on." She said adamantly. "There won't be a problem. Cause that boy is going down. So to speak."

* * *

By the time Irina arrived, most of the team had arrived and were waiting in the briefing room. She smiled at Bepa, and pulled two letters from her pocket. "Kurt, Marie, I've heard from your mother, she asked me to give you these."

Kurt, perched lightly on the back of his chair, eagerly reached for the letters and handed Marie hers. It had been more than month since their mother had been sent on a secret mission, and had been incommunicado.

"Where's Martin?" Irina asked. "It's not like him to be late." She had her suspicions however, as their latest recruit was also absent. She hit a button on the phone on her desk. The phone rang only once when, with a flash of light, the two missing operatives appeared, looking slightly disheveled.

"Nice of you to join us Agent Skorse." Irina said dryly.

"Sorry," Martin apologized. "Amy and I were catching up, and uh, lost track of the time."

"Catching up eh." Jack grinned.

Marie rubbed her neck and cleared her throat meaningfully. Martin's eyes widened, as did Amy's when she saw the bruise starting to form on the boy's neck.

"Nice going Amy." He muttered, hunching down in his chair in a vain effort to avoid the amused stares of his compatriots.

"Hey I healed the black eye." She shrugged.

Vincente's eyes widened, and he shot Martin a look.

"She was a little annoyed with me." He explained.

"Yeah well you disappeared for like, seven years without even a phone call or an e-mail."

"You were hitting on Xander."

"Martin!" Irina broke in.

"Yes ma'am."

"If I could begin?"

"Sorry ma'am."

"Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like you to meet Amy Madison, your newest team mate. Agent Madison is a witch."

"Cheers." Jack grinned, saluting her with his wand.

"Amy, allow me to introduce your comrades. Martin you evidently already know. You may also be acquainted with Mr. Osborne," Dan nodded at her and she waved. "Marci Ross is also from your neck of the woods, but you may not remember her. Kurt and Marie Darkholme." Amy's eyes widened in shock at the sight of the blue furred boy, who waved cheerily at her. The goth girl sitting beside him nodded, much like Dan had. A lock of white hair fell into her eyes and she brushed it back with a gloved hand. "You'll meet Stephen Soong and April later. Lastly we have Vincente Natchios," who refused to look at her, "Jack Calloway, and my daughter, Bepa Derevko."

Amy's eyes narrowed a bit when she looked at Irina's daughter. She looked familiar for some reason. Had she seen her before? Before she could ponder further, Irina began the briefing.

At the touch of a button, a picture of a handsome young man with shoulder length brown hair appeared on the view screen behind Ms. Derevko.

"This is Connor Angel." Irina began. "The son of the Vampires Angel, and Darla."

"Vampire's can't have children." Vincente said quietly. It sounded like it was a struggle to work up the nerve to speak. He was carefully not looking at his boss.

"No," came the answer, "They can't. It's completely unprecedented, but so is intercourse between a Vampire with a soul, and a resurrected Vampire."

"That's interesting." Dan said, an eyebrow quirking.

"Darla was staked by Angel in 1997. The law firm Wolfram and Hart resurrected her in 2000 as part of a plot to corrupt Angel. After she was re-sired, she and Angel conceived Connor. He's a complete anomaly, and as such has been sought by many parties. Agent Darkholme approached him in 2002, but he declined our offer.

"Then in 2003 he contacted us. He was concerned about his father, who had accepted a position with Wolfram and Hart."

Dan and Bepa nodded, both were aware of Angel's decision. Though Bepa seemed confused.

"Mom wait," she interrupted. "If this is true, why don't I remember this kid? Wouldn't I have met him when I went after Angelus?"

"You probably did." Irina told her. "Connor offered to provide us with intel as to Angel's and his employers' activities. Then he vanished, almost literally without a trace." A new picture of the boy appeared. "After two years we've finally located him, attending Standford University." Bepa still looked lost. "They erased his identity."

"They what?!"

"Connor Angel is now Connor Reilly."

"Mein Gott," Kurt swallowed.

"The job was so thorough, that no one remembered that he even existed."

"Not even his father?" Amy asked incredulously.

"No."

"Jesus." Bepa swore. "So what's this got to do with us?"

"We've learned that Mr. Angel/Reilly will be going on a school trip to Norway."

"Norway?" Jack asked. "Why the hell-"

"We can ask him later. We're going to get him out."

"So this is an extraction mission?" Martin guessed.

"Correct. Martin, Vincente and Marci, I want you ready to leave in an hour to re-con the site. When we've heard from you, we'll send the rest of the team in. Remember, Connor has no memory of his previous life, if you can get him without a struggle good. But do what you have to. Once we've got him, Mr. Sark is confident that Dr. Sevarious and his staff will be able to de-program him."

"What happens then?" Amy wanted to know.

"That will be up to him. Could be he likes his new life, and if so he can go back to it. But we may need to put him witness protection."

"But you're hoping that he'll join up." Dan said.

"That's correct. Martin, get your team ready. We'll wait for your signal."

Martin nodded. "Marci, Dan, let's get our op-tech and go sight-seeing."

To Be Continued...  
**BONUS MATERIAL!!**

From the Files of Carpe Noctem:

Name: Bepa Derevko  
Call Sign: Prodigal

Supernatural Expertise: Vampires  
Training: Slayer training with the Watcher's council.  
Special Abilities: As the Slayer, Bepa posseses strength, speed, agility and fortitude that far surpass that of normal humans.

History: Bepa was placed as an agent of Carpe Noctem into Slayer training by her mother Irina Derevko under the name Faith LeHay. When her watcher was killed she was sent to Sunnydale to continue her mission. After a brief return to a previous Carpe Noctem base, disguised as a prison facility, the machinations of the First required she be sent out into the field again. While aiding the Slayer, Buffy and her allies she passed valuable information to Carpe Noctem. While on a mission to Brussels, she was compromised and extracted.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_Continuity Correction. Interrogations took place immediately after the Alias episode "The Awful Truth". This story takes place immediately following Interrogations, placing it just before the Alias episode "Ice". And now on with our story._

*BREET*BREET*BREET*

Eric Weiss' hand shot out from under the blanket and slapped the snooze button on his alarm. He was just about to fall back asleep when his cell phone rang.

"I hate you." He muttered into the phone.

"Good morning to you too." Vaughn said. "Just wanted to make sure you got up."

"You know me well."

Two minutes later and he was in the shower, rinsing off the travel dust and jet-lag. His and Vaughn's flight had gotten in at 1:00 am. Then he'd spent two hours finishing up his share of the report on their investigation. A quick cup of coffee while his bagel toasted and he flipped on the news. More of the same. The world coming apart at the seams, and it was his job to sew it back together.

He'd barely had time to get used to his new job as a black ops agent before Sloan had sent him and Vaughn to DC to continue their investigation into the Watchers. And there was a creepy group. Bunch of old men who'd trained girls from birth practically to be assassins because they believed the world was populated by Vampires.

"You don't really think it was Vampires do you?" Weiss had asked Vaughn after hearing of the incident at the DC nightclub.

"They weren't giving off any body heat, Syd had puncture wounds on her neck, and their faces…"

"That doesn't mean anything." Weiss insisted. "There's all sorts of ways to keep from giving off body heat. And the face thing, so they had a really good make-up guy."

Vaughn shrugged. "I don't know one way or the other. But remember how unbelievable Rambaldi's inventions seemed until we saw them for ourselves?"

"Okay point taken, but Vampires?"

"You're awfully skeptical for a descendant of Harry Houdini."

"Hey Houdini did illusions okay? And what a lot of people don't know is that he was the biggest skeptic of them all. He made it like, his mission to discredit mediums."

His musings were interrupted by his doorbell ringing, and immediately thereafter, the front door opened.

"I'm up Syd!" Weiss called.

"I'll be sure to let her know." Nadia grinned. "She sent me over to check up on you."

"No one has any faith in me." He sighed. His bagel popped out of the toaster and he offered her half.

"No thanks." She smiled. "I already ate."

Nadia, Sydney and Weiss arrived at APO headquarters together that morning. Vaughn was already there. He and Sydney kissed, and headed into the briefing room. Nadia watched, happy for her sister.

Her sister. How strange it was to feel so close to this woman who she'd never even met until a few months ago. To learn not only the identity of her mother and father, but to learn that she had a sister had been, well, almost overwhelming. Toss in a terrorist plot involving her father and an Indiana Jones like search for a lost artifact, and you had yourself one hell of a half year.

And that had only been half of it. She'd tentatively joined the APO in January, and almost immediately got tossed into an investigation into a secret society that hunted Demons. Thank God her first official mission with APO had just involved a stolen computer. And of course, the man who'd murdered her mother.

Then of course, meeting Weiss had been a nice side bonus to all the craziness.

"Good morning." Her father greeted, as she filled in the final seat at the briefing table. Though one was still vacant. Jack Bristow had left for DC almost immediately after they'd recovered the Valta. He was still investigating the Watchers.

* * *

"Vampires are real." Jack said without preamble. He'd made the call the night before, following his interview with William the Bloody, a.k.a. Spike.

"I know." Sloane said simply.

Jack clenched his jaw. "Of course you do."

"Don't be like that Jack. You know the protocol as well as I do. Information on the paranormal and the occult is on a strictly need to know basis. Even the Alliance agreed about that."

"How long have you known?"

"Not quite as long as I've known about Rambaldi."

"Fine." Jack sighed. There wasn't time to berate his old "friend" for not sharing information. After all, he himself was keeping the existence of the B.P.R.D. a secret from everyone, even Sloane, though he suspected Arvin already knew about them as well. "We need to tell the others."

"Do I need to remind you again about protocol Jack?"

"You don't think they need to know? Sydney was almost killed in D.C. because they were unprepared for what they were facing."

"They already suspect that Vampires are real Jack. Marshall's been obsessing over Bela Lugosi Movies ever since. They'll be prepared."

"Yo Spook!" a deep gravelly voice called from Jack's end of the line. "You comin'?"

"What's going on there Jack?"

"Just transporting a prisoner. I'll report again soon. I'm almost done here. We'll discuss the protocol when I get back."

* * *

Sydney, Dixon and Marshall immediately recognized the face on the view screen. Though Sydney and Dixon had not known him very well, he and Marshall had been fairly good friends.

"James Belcher." Sloan said for those who'd not known him. "Former SD6 sleeper agent. Like many at SD6 he was deceived into believing he was working for the CIA." He ignored the dirty looks shot his way. Everyone knew it had been Sloane who had fabricated that lie. "He was recruited just out of high school and underwent extensive hypnosis to become one of SD6's best sleeper agents.

"Before you start in on me, know that Mr. Belcher volunteered for the program."

"What?" Vaughn said incredulously. "Why would-"

"He wanted to be James Bond." Sloane shrugged. "His sense of adventure outweighed his concerns. Due to his interest in the occult he was used mainly to seek out Rambaldi artifacts. He was the agent who infiltrated the Watchers."

"You've recruited him again haven't you." Sydney guessed.

"No. Given our history I doubt he'd give me the time of day let alone agree to work for me again. However due to our recent encounter with possible paranormal entities, it has been suggested that his expertise may prove invaluable."

"Not to mention he may be able to provide intel on the watchers." Dixon added.

Nadia looked at the picture, taken by the CIA just after shutting down SD6. The young man had been only 22 at the time. After working for SD6 for almost five years. She glanced at Sydney. "What happened to him?"

"He didn't take the news that he'd been working for terrorists well." Vaughn said. "Most of SD6's employees opted to join the CIA. He didn't. He asked to undergo intense hypnotherapy to repress all memories of his actions as a spy."

"Went back to his civilian life as if he'd never left." Weiss finished. "He was pretty upset about what happened."

"Sydney, Dixon, Marshall," Sloane said. "I want you to contact James. Try to convince him to help."

"You can't seriously think he'd agree, even if he believes us." Sydney said.

"Maybe not but there is another reason for bringing him back into the fold." Arvin hit another button and another picture appeared.

"Oh." Marshall said, cringing. "Her."

"Sylvia Hawkins." Sloan introduced. "James' handler. She knew exactly who she was working for. Unfortunately she developed a fixation with Mr. Belcher."

"That's putting it mildly." Marshall muttered. "She was like, totally nuts. She had him under surveillance at all times. We're talking Fatal Attraction type stuff here."

"After her incarceration by the CIA she was checked into a maximum security mental institution." Weiss said. "Arkham I think."

"Correct. Unfortunately she is no longer there."

"Don't tell me." Sydney said, her eyes wide. "She was one of the ones who escaped."

Sloane nodded. Two months ago terrorists attempted to recruit the inmates of Arkham Asylum, staging a raid on the hospital and several of the patients escaped. Most were quickly recaptured under mysterious circumstances, but a few had slipped through the cracks. Apparently, Ms. Hawkins was one of them.

"Most recent intel has her involved with a Cult called the Esoteric Order of Dagon." Sloane said. "It's likely she'll attempt to contact Mr. Belcher. Due to her instability, it would be best if he at least have his memories, and his skills fully intact, just in case she does. Recruit him if you can. But mostly, warn him. Try to prepare him. James is my responsibility but I can't go myself."

Sydney frowned, but nodded. "All right."

* * *

"Knock knock!" Martin called out, banging on the door frame with his fist. "April stop the lap dance and let Danni get back to work."

Amy shot him a look. "What?" While she wasn't accompanying the recon team, she'd come down to the lab so she could meet the last two members of the team.

"It's a joke!" said a very pretty brunette as she emerged from behind a cabinet. "Martin teases Danni as part of their male bonding. Danni won't make use of my sexy programming."

Amy blinked. "What?"

"Amy," Martin said, as a young Asian man emerged from a dark room. "Meet April, and her bestest friend in the whole world, Daniel Soong."

"Hi." Amy said, uncertainly.

"Hi!" April smiled, holding out her hand to shake. "I'm a robot."

"I, thought that might be it." Amy said. She was a little taken aback by this.

"Oh I'm sorry." April said. "I'm being too forward and freaking you out?"

Martin looked at Daniel, his brow raised.

"We're working on her recognition of body language and causes." Daniel explained.

"I'm sure I'll get over it." Amy said.

"So," Martin said. "What've you got for us today Danni?"

"Well," Daniel said, walking to the work table nearby. "I got your usual recon toys, but I've also been tinkering." He picked up a pair of binoculars. "Electronic binoculars. The usual features, except that it's got better resolution on the close ups. To help ID Connor it'll take pictures, and sort through ID's right there. No waiting for a connection to me and my rocking computer."

"His computer doesn't literally rock." April explained. "He means it as a metaphor, that his computer is really good."

"Yeah we got that." Marci rolled her eyes.

"April, do you have the comms?" Daniel asked.

"Of course!" April flounced over to another work table and picked up three devices that looked like wireless attachments for cell phones. "They have a translator in them so you'll understand what everyone's saying." She smiled.

"Oh good." Martin said. "That mission in Brussels was a headache and a half."

"Maybe if you'd actually been studying languages instead of your conspiracy theories." Vincente said quietly.

"Says the guy who spends more time playing Halo than translating runes?"

"I can do both at the same time."

"Vincente's very smart." April beamed as she handed him his comm. He refused to look at her and took the comm as if her hand might burn him. "But he's very shy." She whispered to Amy.

"I noticed." Amy nodded. She started as a gun was cocked behind her. She whirled, to find Marci checking the clip in a firearm.

"Not all of us can shoot fireballs." She said, off of Amy's shocked look.

"But I thought this was a recon mission."

Marci shrugged. "Yeah, but what we plan on and what winds up happening won't necessarily be similar."

"Are we set?" Martin asked, slipping his comm into his ear. Marci did so as well, likewise, Vincente. After holstering her gun, Marci nodded. "Okay. We'll be in touch." Martin said, kissing Amy, then putting a hand each on Marci's, and Vincente's shoulders, and they vanished.

"Martin can teleport." April explained.

"She knows April." Daniel said.

To Be Continued…

**Bonus Material!**

From the Personnel Files of Carpe Noctem:

Names: Daniel Soong, and April

Code Names: Prometheus and Golem

Daniel Soong was born in Seattle Washington, and graduated from MIT at age 16. He received a masters in Electronic Engineering and Behavioral Science at 20.

April was created by Warren Meers as a girlfriend, and abandoned by him when he grew tired of her. Her battery ran down in Sunnydale Park, where she was found by Daniel, traveling from Seattle to L.A. for a vacation.

She was re-charged, and slightly re-programmed by Daniel to have free will, but with a conscience. (He claims he used a combination of philosophies including the Wiccan Rede of Harm None, and the Golden Rule, as well as Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Muslim influences. April claims that he also encouraged her to watch every episode of Star Trek. All series.

They were rescued from agents of Wolfram and Hart by Sark and Mystique, and recruited into Carpe Noctem as the Op-Tech support team. Daniel is currently pursuing doctorates in Computer Technology and Psychology.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

New York City. Dorian sighed heavily. Not her favorite city. Not for a long time. Not since she and Sangria had had that little, falling out. She clawed nervously at the steering wheel as the car crossed the bridge. She was taking a huge chance coming here. Two years had passed, but Vampires were not exactly known for forgiving and forgetting. But she had little other choice.

When she'd finally been allowed to go to the smaller ballroom at the club, Spike had been gone. At first she'd feared that he'd been staked. From the sound of things the Slayer had showed up, and started some trouble with the Soulless. But Anna Nevermore, prince of DC had shown up, none to pleased with the situation. Dorian had almost made a decent scapegoat.

"It was the Slayer." Claimed the one remaining bouncer. All the rest had apparently been staked or run off during the fight.

"Actually," said the Malkavian with the tall boots. "That'd be A Slayer now. There's more than one."

"Fine whatever."

"Explain to me," said Ana Nevermore, entering the office of the club's manager. "Exactly what happened."

Anna Nevermore, prince of DC. She was a Malkavian, but none too fond of her own clan. No one was quite sure why, but the leading theory was the prevalence of "fluffy Malks" in the family. Fluffy Malks was a buzz word used to describe members of the clan that were clownish, and silly. Ones who used their insanity as an excuse to be obnoxious.

She handed her top hat and cane to the manager of the club, a ghoul in her service, and sat down in a chair across from the bouncer. Katrina Muse, the Domain's Harpy, and her fellow Toreador, Gabriel Sefirot, Anna's Scourge took places behind her. While the seneschal sat down on a couch to her right.

The town's sheriff, Victor Shultz, a Tremere, stood behind the bouncer. Dorian sat by the minibar.

"Okay," the Vampire in question said nervously. He didn't know the exact nature of his employers, but he knew there was a hell of a lot of mojo in the room right now, and he was on the hotseat. "The night was going the same as always right? Plenty of bloodbags-, er, Mortals, having a good time. The band was going strong, I mean, hey, I'm not a big fan of Mortal Music, but that Voltaire-" He noticed the prince's glare. "Okay so uhm, there was some feeding going on-"

"In MY club?" Anna said. "This better not have been the usual." Feeding in such a public place had the potential to be a major masquerade breach.

"Shit. Uhm, no, no. There's usually nothing going on. One of our bouncers, he called in sick-"

"Vampires don't get sick." Shultz said suspiciously.

"We keep three mortal bouncers on the payroll." The manager said. "I figured, too many Vampires in one place at one time-"

"Got it." Anna said. "Who called in sick, and who filled in for him? Find out."

"On it." The manager said, and got on the phone.

"Continue." Anna ordered.

"Right so, anyway, I sent some guys to break up the feeding. Only when they got there, it'd already been taken care of. Two people, uhm, one was a Slayer I think. She fought like one. The other was a Vampire. I didn't recognize him, but one of our newer guys did."

"And attacked?"

"Yeah. Billy was kind of a hot head."

"Hold the phone." Sefirot said. "A Vampire. One of your kind stopped a feeding?"

"Uhm, yeah, I thought that was weird too. But I've heard rumors about-"

"Angel." Muse said quietly. "But he's dead."

Shultz nodded. "Vampire with a soul. Made quite a name for himself fighting the good fight. He fought an army of Demons, and in accordance with prophecy, became human."

"Quite a story." Gabriel said.

"Yeah, it's epic." Victor agreed with a grin. "I would have liked to meet him, but he became human while mortally wounded. He was buried in a Los Angeles cemetery." He turned to look at Dorian with a smirk. "But he's not the only Vampire with a soul is he?"

All eyes turned to her.

She swallowed hard. "His name is William. Long story short, he got his soul back too."

"We'll deal with that in a moment." Anna said. "Get back to the main story."

"Right, okay, uhm, where was I?"

"The start of the fight."

"Yeah okay. Lot of confusion, like you'd expect. Most headed for the exits. But, a few didn't. The Slayer, and the Vampire started fighting the bouncers."

"To be expected."

"Yeah right, then there was, well the Vamp got into a fight with some Hispanic woman. Looked like she knew what she was doing. Fighting wise I mean. There were two more her age that were moving towards the fight, not away. Hell, one of 'em, another woman got into it with one of the Vamps, not one of the bouncers though. I lost sight of them in the crowd. I was uh, distracted by the witch and the Werewolf."

Everyone in the room swore. In several different languages.

"A Werewolf. Just wonderful, that's all we need, trouble with the Lupines." The seneschal said.

Anna was rubbing the bridge of her nose. "How did it end?"

"The club emptied, and the fighters got out. I didn't see where the Slayer, Witch or Werewolf went, I think it ended mostly cause there weren't anymore Vampires to stake. Hero Vamp got himself shot about, like nine times, and loaded into a coroner's van. The fighters went home."

"Shot? Shot by who?"

His eyes widened with shock. "By the replacement bouncer."

"Got it." The manager said, standing by a printer.

"You have impeccable timing as usual." Anna smiled. She looked at the printouts. "Find out who this man is," she said, pointing to the replacement bouncer. "Gabe, take our guest Dorian and retrieve her boyfriend from the morgue before a bad situation gets worse." She turned to Dorian. "Then you and William get out of my city, and don't EVER come back." Dorian didn't even bother asking how she knew who William was or the nature of their relationship.

* * *

In the trip to the morgue, Gabriel got chatty. "You're dating a Soulless?"

Dorian sighed. "It's not something either of us were planning on."

Gabe smiled. "Love never is." He grinned at the expression on her face. "I'm a Toreador. We know love when we see it, and every time we mention William you get, well I know it when I see it. Just can't describe it."

"So what happens now?"

"We get your boyfriend, make sure anyone who might have seen him rise from the dead doesn't remember it, and then you'll be on your way. And I DO suggest you do as Anna says. Your Will may have instigated a troublesome masquerade breach. Anna must be in a good mood. Normally you'd both be dust by morning for something like that."

Unfortunately, the coroner's van had never arrived. Not with William.

"Could he have woken up in transit?" Dorian wondered.

"Could have, but he'd have busted out wouldn't he? There's no sign of that. He's not one for covering his tracks is he?"

"No, not really. He's not Mr. Subtlety."

Gabriel got on the phone to Nevermore. Then his brow furrowed. "Well shit."

"What's wrong?"

Gabriel looked at her. "Our substitute bouncer is one Marcus Dixon. He's a former agent for the CIA."

* * *

"There's only one Archon I know of who has the connections we need." Anna said, pacing. "Unfortunately he's none too fond of me." She sighed in exasperation. "So we've got a former CIA agent posing as a bouncer, shooting a vampire and loading him into a coroner's van, that never arrives."

"This might not actually lead back to us." Gabriel said. "He's a lesser Vampire. Not one of the Kindred."

"He knows about us, which is bad enough. We can't let, whoever has him keep him. Or keep their memories of him. They either need their memories erased or they have to die."

"I would suggest memory erasing." Victor said. "This has too much high profile potential for a disappearance."

"Agreed. So, how do we contact Shane? He's not exactly taking my calls these nights."

"We'd have to send a messenger then." Muse suggested. "Someone expendable."

Anna pulled the stake from Dorian's heart. "You're going to New York."

To Be Continued…

**BONUS MATERIAL!**

From the Personnel Files of Carpe Noctem

Name: "Black" Jack Calloway

Call Sign: Hawkins

Supernatural Expertise: Magic (Combat, Infiltration)

Training: Four years at Marie Leveau's Voodoo Academy, Graduate of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (House Slytherin)

Special Skills: Jack has had independent training in using magic for pick pocketing and beating security systems

Jack grew up in Key West Florida before attending magic school in New Orleans. Many stories circulated about the reason for the "Black" in his name. For some time the most popular was that he was secretly the son of Sirius Black. Actually he was called "Black" Jack because of five Jacks in his neighborhood growing up, he was the only one with black hair.

Like most of his family he had little interest in the politics of the Wizarding World, shunning many of their rules and hypocrisies. Upon graduation from Hogwarts, he was recruited into Carpe Noctem.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

_ "Slaying's what we were built for B."_ Faith's voice echoed in Buffy's head as she looked around at the carnage that surrounded her. How in the hell did anyone manage to identify Faith after this? The warehouse was barely a shell.

"What did this?" she muttered to herself. "What could have done this?" Buffy wasn't a tech type. She didn't know if there were bombs that could do so much damage. But she found it hard to believe that something like this could happen naturally.

In the days following Willow's pronouncement of Faith's passing, Willow and the Devon coven had used every resource they could, mystical and otherwise to piece together what had happened. Faith had killed the Demon she'd been sent after. From what they could tell, it hadn't even been all that difficult. Rumble in the underworld was that the Demon had been somewhat preoccupied with another victim.

And that's where the real mystery started. There were rumors flying left and right as to what had happened next. Some were saying another Demon Hunter had been after him, and decided that a Slayer would make a good prize. Some were saying that the Initiative wasn't so defunct after all. Or any number of secret organizations from Department H, The Center, even plain old Interpol.

Willow had even heard that Buffy herself had come after Faith.

The only thing they knew for certain was that Faith had been pursued after the kill. And the chase had involved a young woman, a black helicopter, and a very large boom.

_"Slaying's what we were built for B."_ Of all the things, crazy and otherwise that Faith had said, why was that particular phrase running through her mind right now? Was this the epitaph she thought Faith should have? Was that really all they were? All they were for? Buffy couldn't believe that.

Maybe that was the real difference between them. In a lot of ways, Buffy would never admit to, she and Faith were very much alike. But Buffy had never believed, had never accepted that Slayers were made only to kill. That they were an expendable weapon. Even after they'd created an army of Slayers she'd refused to believe that. Maybe that's why Faith had flipped. She'd seen only the darkness of the Slayer's role and stopped caring.

_"We're not expendable Faith."_ Buffy thought. _"And we _will _find whoever did this to you and make sure they don't hurt anyone else."_

The problem was, how?

"How are we going to find any clues in all of this?" she grumbled, kicking at a stray bit of heavy metal container. It skidded across the concrete, almost scuffing the circle Dawn was trying to draw. Her sister glowered at her.

"Do you mind Buffy?" she said. "Some of us actually have jobs to do here." She regretted it immediately but before she could apologize, Buffy had turned away in a huff.

Dawn sighed. It was the first time she and Buffy had spent any time together since they'd left Italy. Not counting the few times during breaks from college. Not all of those had taken her to Scotland after all, which was where Buffy spent most of her time.

Of course it had taken a death to bring them together again. All of them really. Willow and Xander had emerged from their own "vacations" to help with the investigation. Any death of a Slayer or a Scooby was met with investigation, and usually, pretty bad ass retaliation.

The Devon coven or the handful of sciencey Scoobies usually handled the detective part. But this time was special. This was one of the old guard so to speak. One of the big names.

Faith was as much a legend as Buffy was. Bigger in some circles. Dawn didn't know how much Buffy was aware of the stories that got told. Dawn, being not the Big B herself heard more. Faith had always joked that while Buffy was the one the girls looked up to, she herself was a cautionary tale. But she was only half right. Faith wasn't just an example of what not to do, she was a story of redemption, and hope.

Her death had hit everyone hard. Even those, like Dawn, who hadn't particularly cared for her.

While Dawn was assisting Willow in at least the preparations for the mystical side of this investigation, Xander coordinated a small team of Slayers and friends in checking the mundane evidence.

"According to the Interpol report," one, a hacker who's skills were impressive, even compared to Willow's, was looking into what had already been found. "Faith's target was under investigation by the Mortal Authorities. Interpol and the FBI it looks like."

"Aw geeze." Xander groaned. "But blowing up a warehouse? Pretty overboard don't you think?"

"It wasn't them." she shook her head. "There was an undercover agent all set to apprehend the Demon...huh."

"What?"

"Even it's mortal disguise was kinda creepy." She showed Xander the picture, and he agreed. It was exactly what you'd expect from someone suspected of...

"Okay wow. Even for us? Yikes." The Demon had allegedly been involved in some pretty heinous stuff. No wonder the Feds were after him.

"Anyway it looks like Faith got to him before they did. Probably saved their lives. Then there was a chase, and Faith ran in here. And then it blew up." She groaned and face-palmed. "God can't anyone come up with an original explanation?"

"Another gas leak?" the one eyed young man guessed.

"Yeah. But uh, somehow I doubt that's what happened."

"Any gas leak big enough to do this much damage would have taken out a lot more than just this warehouse." Xander acknowledged.

"Could it have been a bomb?"

"Maybe, but I don't know of any explosive could have done this. Granted my military knowledge is way out of date."

"Well if it was mystical" Willow broke in. "We'll know soon. We're ready." She stood just on the edge of the circle that Dawn had drawn. She was glad that the younger Summers had not only taken art classes in school, but had apparently done well enough in them to fill in the circle with the requisite elaborate runes and symbols.

"Willow," Giles asked her. "What precisely are you going to do?" It had been many years since Willow had gone over to the Dark Side, but most of her friends still got a slight twinge of unease whenever she invoked either levels of power that were higher than most would, or when she cast a spell none of them were familiar with.

"Basically I'm going to use the circle, and the energy in the warehouse to trace Faith's path from where she killed the Demon, to here. The 'memory' is still in the area and I can make them appear as images in the circle."

"So, it's like a mystical version of that holographic doo-wonky on that show?" Xander guessed.

"Yep!" Willow smiled cheerily.

"What do you need us to do?" Buffy asked.

"Just don't interrupt me, or disrupt the circle or I'll lose the signal." Willow could see they were nervous. It didn't bother her. She knew she'd be fine. She knew now that it was not power in of itself, no mater how strong, that determined whether she'd go dark or light. It was entirely her own intentions. She began to chant in a language she was certain no one but possibly Giles would be able to identify. It was a language no one outside the densest jungles of South America spoke. She wasn't even certain it was of this Earth. Her diminutive green mentor certainly wasn't.

As she chanted, she could feel the old connections firing back up. It was a familiar feeling, ever since she'd brought a flower through the earth from Peru to England. This time she was bringing images, and psychic impressions. Less tangible, but also across far less distance.

Giles watched Buffy and the others. Mostly Buffy. He knew this must be killing the girl. He knew she hated feeling useless. Particularly because it was not a feeling she was used to. When the images popped into being in the circle however, his attention was riveted there. The 'picture quality' was not the best. He guessed it was from a combination of both Willow's inexperience with this kind of projection, and amount of time and distance that she was calling them from.

Faith's grunt as her ax buried itself in the Demon's skull sent a pang through all assembled. How strange it was, the things that stuck with you. Faith's inarticulate vocalizations in the midst of battle for instance. She barely had time to recover her breath before she found herself staring down the barrel of a gun. Who knew where the supposed innocent victim of the late demon had hidden it. Her face was unclear. Buffy wanted to ask Willow to try to clear it up, but managed to hold her tongue.

The voice was garbled. They could make out the word 'freeze', and what sounded like three short words. Possibly a designation for some police branch? The hacker was already narrowing down possibilities.

Faith of course, did not freeze. She shoved the demon's body at the new assailant and bolted. The projections of the chase were disjointed, but as it went on, the picture and sound became clearer, as distance and time were lessened.

By the time Faith was in sight of the warehouse where they now stood, they could see her pursuer clearly. Buffy fixed the face in her mind. Then, Faith dashed into the warehouse, and was just in time to see a small, irregularly shaped circular device on the floor.

"Oh sh-" And then fire. Willow gasped, and leaped back from the circle. She was amazed to find that not one of her friends caught her from falling, but all of them did. She took a moment to revel in the warm fuzzies, then composed herself.

"So uhm, that's what happened."

While the others cleaned up, Buffy paced restlessly. "Who was that woman? Who was she working for?" She whirled on the hacking Scooby. "Anything yet?" she demanded. Her tone was apparently sharper than she'd intended because the young woman flinched away from her.

"There's lots of Government agencies that could have been. It'll take a while to narrow it down."

Buffy growled and bunched her fingers into her hair.

"Buffy," Giles said, coming to a decision. "May I speak with you for a moment?"

Uh oh. He had his lecture face on. "Giles I know I need to be patient but I can't stand not being able to do anything."

"Actually that's precisely what I wanted to speak with you about." he said. "There may _be _something you can do."

"What?" she asked eagerly. She really wanted to slay something or someone right now.

"There is a young man, an apprentice Watcher. One of those who survived the First's attack, who may be able to help us. It's taken me some time, but I've finally tracked him down."

"How can he help us? Oh God Giles are you sending me on a recruitment mission? You know I hate those."

"Yes I do. And yes, I am. You wanted to feel useful yes?" he smirked sympathetically.

Buffy sighed with frustration. "I'm supposed to be above those sorts of things by now." she grumbled.

"This young man may be able to help us not only because he was a member of the Watchers. He was also working for the C.I.A. at the time."

That stopped Buffy in her tracks. "Yeah buh-what?"

Giles removed his glasses and began to clean them. "He was sent by the C.I.A. to determine if the Watchers were a threat. Shortly before the First wiped out the London headquarters, the young man disappeared. My guess is that he was reassigned."

"Okay so let me get this strait. You want me to go off to recruit a C.I.A. spook, to re-join the Watchers, this time for real?"

"Precisely."

Buffy thought for a bit, then gave up. "Fine. He better be James Bond cute though."

To Be Continued...

**Special Features!**

From the Personnel Files of Carpet Noctem:

Name: Vincente Natchios

Call Sign: Savant

Supernatural Expertise: Auras, and Ancient Runes

Training: Vincente has had no formal training in his area of expertise but has dedicated much of his life to independent study. As a result he has become quite an authority in the subject.

Special Skills: In addition to an extensive knowledge of Runes and their meanings, Vincente possesses the unique ability to _see_ magic. This ability manifests itself as a distinctive aura around individuals or places with any sort of mystical ability or heritage. With practice and experience he has learned how to identify specific types of auras.

Background: Vincente has been very secretive about his background, but it is known that he was born and raised in Greece. His upbringing was apparently intensely abusive, resulting in an acute unease in the presence of women. He ran away at age 15, and eventually recruited into Carpe Noctem.


End file.
